February 20, 2024 • 39 mins
Rachel Drake, 32, resides in Portland, Oregon. She is a new Mom to Lewis, partner to ultrarunner Tyler Green, and has her PhD in medical sciences.
She was the first woman across the line in this years Black Canyon 100K, where she earned ultrarunning's most sought after Golden Ticket to Western States.
Rachel started 2024 off with a win at the Hong Kong 33K, the first World Trail Majors race of the year. And now with her win at Black Canyon, she will be toeing the line at North America's most illustrious race.
We touch on the issues facing many female athletes post-partum and how important it is to share and learn from each other.
Here is Rachel...
You can follow Rachel on Instagram here : https://www.instagram.com/rachelraedrake/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi everyone, this is Michele Graglia. This is Marianne Hogan.
Hi, I'm Adrian McDonald.
I'm Katie Asmund. Hi, this is Anthony Gasols. Hi, my name is Meg Morgan.
Hey, it's Jordan Trofe. This is John Ray. This is Ryan Van Duser,
and you are listening to the Gotta Run Racing Podcast.
Music.
(00:25):
Podcast. Hey everybody, I'm Norm. And I'm Jody. And this is another Guarded Run Racing podcast.
All right, before we get to our guest today, what is happening in the world of ultra running?
Well, there's just this past weekend, we were glued to the TV to watch Black
(00:47):
Canyon and great performance by Hayden Hawks coming off a knee surgery,
crushing the course record.
Indeed. In different conditions too.
Snow on the ground, race delay, mud. Mud.
Yeah, that was incredible. Incredible performance. Sure was. And then Jupiter.
(01:13):
Jupiter. From Mexico coming in second. Do you know how I knew that?
Because it was kind of funny on the live stream that they weren't pronouncing it correctly.
But you know how I knew that? Because in Mexico, I'm Yodi.
That's right. That's how you can never forget.
That's right. So I had the inside tell on how to pronounce Jupiter.
(01:35):
But it was a very exciting finish. And not only that, today on the podcast,
who is on the podcast today?
You know, might have been the first place female, Rachel Drake. What?
Yeah, very excited to get into speaking with her. But before we do.
What's happening in the world of Gotta Run Racing? Well, our new website just
(01:56):
went live and uncensored.
Gosh, I hope it's censored.
And all our races are up and running.
Per registration, that's right. So if you head on over to gottourunracing.com,
check out our new website, let us know what you think.
It's a big departure from our last one, so we're really excited about it.
(02:18):
And you can click on upcoming events. Hence, it'll take you over to Race Roster
and you can sign up for Lost Treasure, Rainbow Trail, and Island Lake Classic.
All right. We will see you there. Sure will. And who did you say is on our podcast
today? Oh, yeah. Remember? Rachel Drake. Oh, right.
Rachel is 32. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
(02:39):
She's a fairly new mom. She has her Ph.D. in medical sciences.
And her partner is ultra runner Tyler Green.
Rachel has run with the Bowerman Track Club in Portland and earned a marathon
personal best of 235.28 at the California International Marathon in Sacramento
this past December, which is well below Olympic trial standards.
(03:00):
Yeah, wow. And she started 2024 off with a bang with a win at the Hong Kong
33K, which is the first World Trail Majors Race of the Year.
And now with her win at Black Canyon, she's earned her golden ticket to the
big show Western States in June.
Well, we have lots to talk about. I think that's going to be her first 100 miler. Wow.
(03:22):
Well, let's find out. Without further ado, here is Rachel coming up.
Well, welcome to the podcast and big congrats on winning Black Canyon.
I'm not a very easy day with the mud conditions.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. that. But before we get into Black
(03:47):
Canoe, I also want to congratulate you on your Hong Kong win. Thank you.
And then you crushed that record by 40 minutes. What was that like?
That was really fun. The terrain over there is a lot different from what I'm
used to, but it was such an incredible experience,
not just the race, but being in Hong Kong and getting to experience the culture
(04:07):
and the warm people over there.
It was really incredible. incredible it must have been tough to get acclimatized
because that's a that's a pretty long flight especially coming from the west
coast and the temperature wouldn't be I know it's not super hot at that time
of year but did you find it tough to get acclimatized for race day.
(04:28):
Surprisingly with the time difference it wasn't so bad we kind of lucked out
on our flight because there was it was a pretty empty flight so we had a lot
of space to spread out and actually get some some pretty good sleep.
So that helped. And then, yeah, it was a lot warmer than what we're used to.
And I hadn't done any heat training before that race.
(04:49):
It took a little bit of time, but we were able to get out on the course and
experience both the conditions in terms of the temperature and the humidity,
but also just the difference in terrain.
So I felt pretty prepared going into race day, considering all of that.
That's great. What made you choose this race?
(05:10):
It was purely because my husband wanted to do the 100K and I said,
if I'm coming with you, I want to get in on the action.
So I emailed the race director and asked if I could get into the 33K and they kindly let me in.
That sounds familiar, eh Norm? Yeah, same here.
We have a little agreement that if he's picking a race internationally one year,
(05:35):
then I get to pick the next one.
Okay. So this is my year. So I, of course, picked one that isn't on everyone's
radar, but we're going to Slovenia in April. So I'm pretty excited about that.
Wow. Which race are you doing? it's called
ultra trail the vape the vapa valley i'm
not sure if i'm saying that right but it just
(05:56):
looked like a really beautiful part of the world and slovenia is
a relatively small country so it would be fun to we like to obviously attach
it to a vacation although we never do it in the right order we always do the
race end of the vacation which is not okay yeah i've told tyler i said I said,
you know, I want to go on a vacation sometime,
(06:18):
someplace cool where we're not doing races.
Because I don't think we've ever done that where we don't race.
No, but it's a fun way to see a country, certainly.
Yeah, absolutely. I think she signed us up too many glasses of wine.
I didn't know about it for a week later. Oh, really?
(06:38):
Wow. Well, speaking of international races, have you have you noticed a difference or can you pinpoint?
Yeah. Can you pinpoint a difference, you would say, between the organization
of a race overseas versus in North America?
Because we certainly have noticed differences, but I'm curious to hear from
your standpoint being an elite.
I think in terms of. Yeah, you you have a unique perspective as race directors,
(07:03):
so I'm sure you're you're noticing things that I might not notice.
The things that I tend to think about are what's at the aid station.
So for example, in Europe, it's oftentimes cheeses and cured meats.
And that's not something that I'm used to eating while running.
(07:24):
I don't think I've ever seen potato chips at a European trail race aid station. But.
Coca-Cola is something that tends to be unanimously provided.
Other things about race organization, I think most of the time courses are really
well marked and that's not a country-specific thing.
(07:45):
It's more of a race-specific thing.
There have been races in the United States put on by companies that I think
don't do as good of a job marking the courses. But I think from my perspective,
that's probably the most important thing that a race could do.
Yeah. Second to nothing else. And then in terms of maybe this isn't race organization
(08:10):
thing, but more of a cultural thing.
It's just some places the community seems a lot more involved in the races.
Places, people are out cheering with their kids.
That's something that I think is really cool and something more unique to Europe.
We would agree with that 100% because we were at UTMB last year and Norm was
(08:31):
mentioning how, you know, in the middle of the night, there would be these tiny
towns and there'd be the whole town. I love it.
Yeah, I love it so much. The kids get to stay up past their bedtime to cheer
on the runners and the kids seem excited about it too.
I think that's something north america can definitely work
on because oftentimes especially if there's any
(08:51):
kind of road section in a race the town
are really not for it and
there's other ways to get around that rather than being upset that they're coming
through your area and you can't go down this road today instead of that road
like we got to work on that for sure yeah i do remember I remember hoping for
(09:13):
homemade pie at the aid station, but I never saw any.
Oh, really? It was gone by the first thousand people at UTMB.
Oh, that'd be fun. Tyler did a race in Italy, and there was someone who was
offering the runners tea throughout the night.
And he said, oh, yeah, that sounds nice.
(09:34):
Maybe I'll have some tea. but then the but then the woman went back into her
into her home that was up on some mountain and she's like okay i just need to
boil the water and he said oh sorry i need to go.
That's funny all right let's get into black canyon a little bit of a delay at
the start with one inch of snow and when we heard that being canadian we thought
(09:59):
that's nothing It was a big deal.
What's the big deal? That's just a regular day for us.
But how did you handle the delay being two hours?
Yeah, I think the delay was more because the bus drivers, their contract,
I guess, wouldn't allow them to drive in those wintry conditions.
And I'm actually originally from Minnesota, so I'm used to the snow.
(10:22):
And I ran in college and did all my running outside pretty much all throughout the winter.
So I'm OK running in the snow.
When we heard that the race was pushed back, I actually hadn't been looking
at my phone because I was just trying to sort of get in the zone.
And my husband, Tyler, said, the race is pushed back two hours. And I said, really?
(10:46):
He said, yeah, I just got a text and then I checked it.
And we just went back to bed.
I had already done a couple of things. I had eaten about half of my breakfast
and braided my hair and put on my anti-chafe stuff.
So I just sort of put my pajamas
back on and fell right back asleep amazingly
(11:08):
wow which i think is really interesting because
normally when i wake up on race morning i'm already i'm
already kind of i can feel my adrenaline starting
yeah my nerves i can feel it starting to starting to
come on so i'm really really glad that i was
able to fall back asleep and then just do
(11:29):
it all over again in a couple hours it's funny
you mentioned in that because Becca said exactly the same thing and
and my comment was wow like to be that
relaxed to be able to go back to sleep I think
speaks to your performance on the day because as
you said normally you wouldn't be able to do that so that's an interesting note
yeah yeah you did run the 60k before so you do know the course and I was wondering
(11:55):
because of the hype did you take off like a 5k race or did you hold back laughs.
I think I held back. I felt really calm and relaxed just from the second the
gun went off, or I don't even know if it was a gun, but the second the race
started, I felt really relaxed and found myself in a big group of women.
(12:17):
I think Heather and then Anna McKenna, an Australian woman, they were up ahead
maybe 10 feet or so for a little while.
And it was one of those things where you think, yes, I could take a few quick
steps and just be right there, but it's way too early for that.
So I'm just going to stay as calm as I can and try to move well without exerting myself too much.
(12:42):
So did you get into your rhythm pretty quickly, would you say?
Yes and no. I think on the road before we got into the mud, it was easy to just let the miles slide by.
But then as As soon as we got on the mud, it was, I don't think anybody was
really finding rhythm in that just because it was pretty slow going and just
you had to stay really engaged because it was also hard to tell what was mud
(13:07):
and there were rocks kind of mixed in. I know a lot of people rolled their ankles.
So you just had to be pretty focused through that section.
Yeah, I can imagine. And I would think because it's sandy too,
that's the kind of mud that is really- Sticks to you.
Like it's gloopy yeah actually Tyler
ran the first 20 miles the day before the race
(13:29):
to to get some information on the conditions
and he he had mud sticking to the
bottoms of his shoes maybe an inch or so so I
was fully prepared for that but interestingly enough we
nobody really that I've talked to and I myself
didn't experience that so it didn't it
didn't stick as bad as I thought it would that's good
(13:52):
yeah so how are
you feeling at the 50 mile mark and what
position were you in by table mesa at the 50 mile mark jumping right to 50 miles
okay well that's when the race starts yeah well that's what i was thinking too
(14:12):
but i felt like the race started back back at black Black Canyon City when Becca caught up to me.
But if you want to talk about Table Mesa, I was feeling like kind of fire in
my belly, like ready to go.
I knew that Becca was super close and I wanted to make it a really quick stop.
(14:34):
So I got what I needed and grabbed my second pacer and just tried to keep pressing as much as I could.
That's true because Becca did mention that you You guys got into Table Mesa at the same time.
I think she was maybe 20 seconds back.
I don't think the elastic had quite snapped on the gap between the two of us,
(14:56):
but we were extremely close right there. Yeah.
So you knew that she was kind of gaining on you. And then do you have an extra gear at that point?
Well, actually, we had been running together prior to that for about 20 miles.
So when I mentioned Black Canyon City, she caught up to me there at mile 37.
(15:17):
And we ran together pretty much all the way into Table Mesa.
Maybe a mile out from Table Mesa, there was a creek crossing.
And on the opposite side of the creek
there was a really slippery bank that you
had to climb up to get out of the creek and i
had run that section a few days prior so i knew that mud was extremely slippery
(15:39):
so when i climbed out i grabbed on to this prickly little bush to help me get
out and becca i guess this was on the live stream i guess she slipped back into
that creek and so right right there,
I put, I don't know, maybe 10 seconds on her after running together for 20 miles.
And then my pacer caught up to me and I thought it was her. So I said, yeah, girl.
(16:05):
And he said, it's me. And he said, hey, she's a little bit back,
but if you want to try to make a move right here, I think it's a good idea.
So I tried to push a little bit harder just to distance myself a little bit more from her.
So by the time we got into Table Mesa, I was maybe 20 seconds ahead of her.
(16:29):
Rather than her catching up to me, it was me putting the tiniest little gap on her.
Did you prefer that, being chased, or would you rather do the chasing?
Typically, I like to do the chasing, I think.
But it's tough because if you're feeling good,
(16:50):
you want to capitalize on that you don't want to hold back
and I think at that point I was just doing
the best that I could in the moment so yeah it
was really exciting and I think it's good for the sport when we have
these really really close races it's much
more fun to watch than someone just blowing it out of the water and running
you know hours faster than the second place person right and to backtrack just
(17:13):
a minute here when did you take the lead because I know there was was some jostling
at the beginning there with Heather and as you said, Anna, but when did you actually take the leap?
Going back to Black Canyon City, I was in second place. I think Heather was,
I calculated her to be about six minutes ahead of me because there was a little out and back section.
(17:35):
So I glanced at my watch when I passed her and I remembered the cactus that we were near.
And then I glanced back at my watch when I ran past that. And I think she was
about six minutes ahead there. So Becca and I worked together on the climb out of Black Canyon City.
It's about a thousand foot climb.
We passed Heather maybe three quarters of the way up that climb.
(17:59):
And actually, Becca passed me on that climb maybe halfway up.
And then I just stuck right behind her. And then the two of us together,
we passed Heather. Heather.
And Heather, and then Becca was
in the lead all the way through Cottonwood Gulch aid station at mile 46.
And I tried to make that a really quick aid. I just grabbed some water, didn't stop very long.
(18:23):
And I actually passed Becca at that aid station.
So I guess technically I didn't lead the race until Cottonwood Gulch at mile 46.
But you can't really call it taking the lead because Becca was still right there.
I mean, she could have very easily been in the lead if she wanted to.
She could have just run right past me, I'm sure.
So we were still working together at that point. I would say we were sharing
(18:46):
the lead and then maybe more definitively taking the lead when I made the move
at that creek crossing about a mile out from Table Mesa. So maybe mile 50 or so. Okay.
All right. I loved what you said. I read a quote in Outside magazine where you
said just that you were hammering together for a really long time.
(19:08):
You're just in it together. And in those moments, you feel it really strongly.
It felt really collaborative.
I was running a lot harder than I wanted to, but it didn't feel antagonistic.
And Becca was forcing me to get the most out of myself. And you're grateful for that.
And I think that that's such a awesome thing to be hearing from someone.
You guys that are obviously everyone wants
(19:31):
to win the race that's in it for that right and you're
all going for the golden ticket but at the same time you
are encouraging each other lifting each other up and the best runner on the
day wins the race so i love hearing that spirit that you have and i think that
that's so awesome and i hope that it continues throughout the sport and more
(19:52):
people people feel that way because it's just so great to hear about that.
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(20:13):
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(20:33):
Now back to Jodi and Norm.
Yeah, yeah, it was awesome. I think, I mean, there's no way that I run the time
that I ran, which was, I think, two minutes off course record.
If Becca hadn't been pushing me, I think it's really, really special to know that you gave your best.
And you always want your competitors to come into a race at their best and to
(20:55):
perform their very best because it forces you to do the same.
So yeah, I'm really grateful for Becca for all her amazing energy and for making
me run a lot harder than I wanted to.
And that's one thing at international races, you don't necessarily know who
your competitor is going to be, right?
Unless you've really done your homework.
(21:17):
That's true. But I think the sport is so international that I know a lot of
the international competitors.
A lot of them are now my friends. So that's a really fun thing for me about
trail running that, yeah, maybe at first I didn't know a lot of the people that
I was racing against, but now I think I have a better idea.
(21:38):
And though there's a language barrier, I think there's still encouragement and
some communication that goes on out there. So that's fun.
So what was going through your mind when you crossed the finish line and you're
handed that big, giant check?
I was really happy to be done.
(21:59):
I thought you were going to say you were handed that big, big,
giant baby because my dad handed my son off to me about 30 feet before the finish line.
But yeah, I was just really happy to be done and relieved and...
Yeah, I was thrilled to have gotten a golden ticket to Western States.
(22:20):
Now that Western States will be your first 100-miler, is that right?
Yeah. And what are your thoughts about that?
I'm excited. You know, I always said I think I need to have a baby before I run 100 miles.
And now I've done that. And I'm excited to see what the new uncharted territory is like. like.
(22:42):
What are you most looking forward to at Western States?
I've been to Western States, I think four times now.
My husband has run it four times and I've paced him in several of those.
And even before he got into Western States, we drove out and ran on the course.
And I think it's just, I have so many memories sprinkled throughout that area.
(23:07):
And this is the same as it was for or Black Canyons.
I'm just excited to have a spectacular day with really a lot of my friends who are running the race.
I'm excited to make those memories and also be reminded of past memories that
have been made on the course with my friends and family.
(23:27):
And both you and Tyler are racing the same day. So who's on baby duty again?
My parents and I think maybe my brother and his wife are going to come.
So yeah, Yeah. My parents have been very supportive of, of our racing and they've
come to a lot of, a lot of races with us,
including they came to Europe with us this summer and to the Canary Islands,
(23:50):
Tyler ran Trans Grand Canaria.
They, yeah, they're amazing. And
it's great. Cause it allows us to really focus on, focus on the racing.
Do they still live in Minnesota? They do.
Yeah. Yeah. So any baby time they can get, I'm sure they're grateful for you.
They they probably tell you to race every month.
Yeah. They actually watched Lewis in Minnesota for two weeks while we were in Hong Kong.
(24:15):
So yeah, they, they love the little guy.
Now you mentioned that you wanted to have a baby before you ran a hundred miler.
Was there anything after having a baby that was unexpected that maybe changed,
training or how you felt after long runs? I'm curious.
(24:35):
Yeah, it was really difficult coming back to running postpartum.
I thought I had done everything right. I found a world-class physical therapist
that works with Olympians who are trying to return to competitive running.
I thought that I was eating a lot.
I thought I was taking a more calculated approach and being conservative,
(24:59):
but I did end up getting a pretty serious injury.
I had a stress fracture in my sacrum, which these bony injuries are very common
postpartum because your bones get weaker with breastfeeding.
And I breastfed for a year.
After I had that injury, I continued to breastfeed, but in my return to running,
(25:21):
I kept my volume very low.
I don't think I ran more than, And I ran kind of between 40 and 50 miles a week
after that while I was still breastfeeding.
And I ran OCC, the 55 kilometer distance at UTMB with that kind of low volume training.
(25:42):
And then in September, I stopped breastfeeding and started training for the
California International Marathon, a road marathon. on.
And I knew that after stopping breastfeeding, it would take about six months
for my bone density to recover.
And I'm not yet at six months.
(26:05):
Six months will be in March next month. So even in my training for Black Canyons,
I wanted to keep my volume really low just to make sure that I didn't suffer
another stress fracture.
Sure for sure well that that's something that women
face with bone density as they approach peri
and menopause too which yeah i never
(26:26):
actually made the connection to until recently because i had a stress fracture
in my tibia in my mid to late 40s and it just dawned on me a couple weeks ago
oh i wonder if that's because it was peri and didn't know it was peri i i think i i was past Past Perry,
before I even knew I was in Perry, because you just the symptoms that you have,
(26:48):
you just write them off to so many different things because there's not one
conclusive thing that happens to you. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Interesting.
The hormone profiles of postpartum and menopause and perimenopause are very similar.
I had a friend who was in perimenopause that had something similar happen.
(27:08):
And we talked a ton on the phone as we were both injured, trying to kind of
troubleshoot and optimize.
And just another thing I want to say about postpartum running is,
and I guess being a mother who's also a competitive athlete,
is just that I think in media, we love to celebrate and talk about strong moms
(27:31):
and mom power, mom strength.
And that really, I think, does a disservice to the challenge that going through
childbirth and all the things that come with being a mom, it makes it look like so attainable.
And nobody is asking you to come on podcasts when you get a stress fracture six months postpartum.
(27:55):
Like we're celebrating this now, of course, but it makes me kind of sad because
when I was in that position, I was seeing all of these mothers winning races and doing really well.
And I just wanted to be that and get there so quickly. and we just don't,
we don't talk about how hard it is.
And I think it's really isolating when you're in that spot, when you're a mom
(28:18):
and you think, why can't I be, why can't I have mom strength?
What's wrong with me? I'm getting injured.
This is really hard. I'm tired. I'm hungry.
So just if you're a mom in that position and you're suffering,
just know that you're not alone and that it's normal to struggle.
We just don't talk about it because it's not as fun, I guess,
(28:39):
is talking about winning races.
Right. And to your point, the previous generation didn't talk about it at all.
They just they just pretended like, yeah, you have the mom struggles,
but I'm not supposed to complain.
So although we are now in a position where we're seeing that Instagram picture
of everything being perfect.
(29:01):
At the same instance, from my experience, my girlfriends and I,
we talk about menopause a lot, which is great.
We still have that struggle of here's the perfection and this is reality.
But at least we are having those conversations. And I think that's huge to helping
the next generation, too.
(29:22):
So I think you're right. We should talk about it as much as we possibly can.
And thank you, Norm, for sitting here during this conversation. Yeah.
Well, it's important for Norm and all the men listening to understand this too,
because I'm sure you have women in your lives, your sisters, partners, friends.
(29:43):
I understand that it's uncomfortable, but I tell Tyler this all the time.
It's really important that we talk about this because he's a coach and he coaches
women and he's interested and eager to understand these things that we go through. Right.
Well, this is the reason why we have this podcast. We're always learning.
We're always talking. Yeah. Yeah.
(30:07):
Well, back to Western States. Who would you look forward to running against
or competing against at Western States?
Because it's going to be such an incredible field of women, like it was last year.
Yeah, everyone. I can't pick a single one, but one that I'm particularly excited
to spend some time with, hopefully, is Esther T.
(30:27):
Logg. Yes, we had her on our podcast. Well, amazing. I'll have to listen to that.
And that's because I met her when we were in Hong Kong and just really love her.
And she's just an incredible person and now a good friend and not someone that
I will get to see very much because we live very far away.
(30:48):
I'm hoping that we get to share some miles together. Yes, when she did,
well, we had her on a week after Western States last year, and it was just an
incredible time for women.
And she was saying that the media had no choice but to look at the women because
it was completely woman-dominated and what the women did, especially what Courtney did.
(31:13):
But nevertheless, it was a woman's year. year. Yeah.
And she had such a tough time at UTMB being sick.
And I don't even know that she completed 10K. I think she stopped pretty quickly.
This year. This year. Well, last year. Yeah. Yeah. Last year.
Yeah. Or yeah, last year. Yeah. Yeah.
So we're excited for her too, because she seems like a really genuinely sweet person and a mom.
(31:38):
She really is. She's incredible. And she's an art history PhD as well. Yeah. Yeah.
That's a whole other podcast. Yeah, right.
Now, with the new World Trail Majors organization coming out,
there is a Canadian race in there, and I don't think you've done any Canadian races.
(32:01):
So how about maybe thinking about checking out one of our big events?
Yeah, that'd be great. I'm totally open to it.
Especially in BC. sea. I'm sure that that would seem like a second home to you
in terms of the trails and conditions.
So yeah. Any reason why you guys haven't raised in Canada yet?
I was thinking about doing Whistler Alpine Meadows a few years ago and it just
(32:26):
didn't quite work out with our schedules.
Yeah, there's no reason we haven't. We actually went to Squamish for our honeymoon.
Oh, wow. We were supposed to go to Bali and the night before we were going to
fly out, we said, we don't even like the beach. Let's do something else.
And we just drove up to, well, first we went to Eastern Oregon,
(32:48):
went camping there, and then we went to Squamish and ran around there.
So we love it. It's incredible.
The night before you decided against Bali? Yeah, we had our bags packed and everything.
And I think I said, so how excited are you about this?
(33:08):
He's like, I'm glad you said something because it just doesn't feel right.
And I was like, yeah, I don't even, what are we going to do there?
Like, where are the trails?
We don't like the beach.
Well, not that we don't like the beach, but we just don't like laying on the beach.
Right. Exactly. yeah that must have been
(33:29):
a quick repack then because the the clothing's not
the same no it's not oh man
well we haven't been to squamish but of course we we know from gary robbins
that it's the place to be but if you're if you want to check out something other
than bc quebec would be the place to go but very technical trails and they have
(33:50):
quebec mega trail which is now part of of the WTM.
But anyways, we always goad our American guests into saying, come on, guys.
You gotta come to Canada. We're your closest neighbor.
What's up? Yeah, that sounds great. I feel like I'm maybe also like 10% Canadian
just being from Minnesota.
(34:10):
You know, similar accent. That's right.
Oh, man. Well, this has been awesome, Rachel. Thank you so much for joining us.
We loved hearing about your Black Canyon experience and of course we'll be following
western states very closely,
but before we let you go we'd like to do a little rapid fire it's just some
(34:31):
fun questions to end off the pod so hope you don't mind all right let's get
into it would you rather be a professional writer painter or musician.
Painter. Painter. Oh, we don't get that one very often.
That wasn't Becca's answer. What was hers? No, no, no. You have to listen.
(34:52):
I'll have to listen. I'll have to listen. Okay.
What's your favorite ice cream flavor? Cotton candy.
Oh. That's a good one. Okay. All right. What's another sport you'd like to excel in? Kite surfing.
Oh, that would be fun. Are you superstitious? No. No? Not at all? No. Okay.
(35:14):
If you could travel back in time, what period would you go to and why?
I would like to, well, if I could be a little older, I'd like to go back to
like right before I was born.
Because my grandpa passed away 10 days before I was born, so I never got to meet him.
So I could go back to then or maybe even a little bit before then when my grandpa was younger.
(35:37):
That'd be nice. Yeah, that'd be amazing. what's
your favorite go-to meal after a
big effort big race like cheese
and carbs i would say maybe quesadilla or grilled cheese or at least that's
what was hitting the spot right after black canyons that are some sort of just
really calorically dense drink like a smoothie or yeah love it all right norm
(36:05):
like a superpower you'd like to have.
Super speak any language oh we've never had that that would be super that would
be amazing how many languages are there in the world i don't know but to just
be able to pull one off at the top of your head that would be amazing any language
even in any language any latin latin,
(36:28):
or indigenous languages have no writing i think it'd just be cool to be able
to instantly communicate with anyone, anywhere.
I love that. That is my favorite answer. You blew us away on that one.
Thank you, Rachel. We really appreciate your time today.
Thank you so much. This was really fun. All the best for your training for Western.
(36:50):
We'll be watching. Thanks.
All right. Take care. Bye. Bye.
And that was Rachel Drake, fresh off her win at Black Canyon.
Yes, indeed. Golden ticket winner to Western States to the big show.
I think I've said this before, but I'd love to know the percentage of elites
that go to Western with a golden ticket that have never run a hundred miles.
(37:16):
I think it's becoming more common because...
Yeah. A hundred miles is a, is a, put a lot of stress in the body.
So do a hundred Ks, further the career. Good point. Interesting.
That's what I'm telling everyone that I know is that don't do a hundred miles
after a hundred miles like I did.
Do a hundred Ks, a hundred Ks. Get your tickets, then do a hundred miles. Yeah.
(37:38):
You're right. You're right. Yeah. Anyway, I also love the fact that her and
Becca stuck together and had some sort of game plan. I don't think it was spoke
of, but hey, we're here together. Let's climb this hill together.
Right. Let's become one and two or stick together. See what happens.
See what happens. See what happens. Yeah. You push me, I push you. Mm-hmm.
(38:01):
Fantastic. Rather than, like she said, leading the race outright and not having that push. Yeah.
It's less interesting for sure when that happens, but. Well,
it was great to see that unfold.
Definitely. And that's definitely what's going to happen at Western States. it's
the west for sure the woman in kind of a field was happening which
will happen at western but they're all going to be pushing each
(38:22):
other which is what the sport is all about you got it i also like her comments
on the struggles that she had postpartum and the fact that she wants to talk
about it and let other women know that it was a struggle it continues to be
but the more we we talk about it,
the better it is for people to deal with it.
(38:45):
And life is not Instagram perfect. That's true. That's true.
Anyways, we'll be excitedly watching this power couple, Tyler Green and Rachel
Drake at Western States, along with all the other people that will be there.
Definitely won't be leaving the house that weekend. And who are we chatting
with tomorrow? Tomorrow, we've got the third place female, Lauren Perez.
(39:06):
Wow. These people are moving along. Well, Well, we like to talk to people that
haven't necessarily been on our radar.
Obviously, Rachel has been because we're familiar with her. But Becca and Lauren, not as of yet.
So it's exciting to see these new runners on the scene for us and to follow them.
(39:28):
Because inevitably, once they hit Western, they're a household name.
And if you like this episode, hey, please leave us a rating and review you wherever
you listen to our podcast.
Thank you. Until next time. Cheers.
Hi everyone, this is Michele Graglia. This is Marianne Hogan.
Hi, I'm Adrian McDonald.
I'm Katie Asmund. Hi, this is Anthony Gasols. Hi, my name is Meg Morgan.
Hey, it's Jordan Trofe. This is John Ray. This is Ryan Van Duser,
and you are listening to the Gotta Run Racing Podcast.
Music.
(00:25):
Podcast. Hey everybody, I'm Norm. And I'm Jody. And this is another Guarded Run Racing podcast.
All right, before we get to our guest today, what is happening in the world of ultra running?
Well, there's just this past weekend, we were glued to the TV to watch Black
(00:47):
Canyon and great performance by Hayden Hawks coming off a knee surgery,
crushing the course record.
Indeed. In different conditions too.
Snow on the ground, race delay, mud. Mud.
Yeah, that was incredible. Incredible performance. Sure was. And then Jupiter.
(01:13):
Jupiter. From Mexico coming in second. Do you know how I knew that?
Because it was kind of funny on the live stream that they weren't pronouncing it correctly.
But you know how I knew that? Because in Mexico, I'm Yodi.
That's right. That's how you can never forget.
That's right. So I had the inside tell on how to pronounce Jupiter.
(01:35):
But it was a very exciting finish. And not only that, today on the podcast,
who is on the podcast today?
You know, might have been the first place female, Rachel Drake. What?
Yeah, very excited to get into speaking with her. But before we do.
What's happening in the world of Gotta Run Racing? Well, our new website just
(01:56):
went live and uncensored.
Gosh, I hope it's censored.
And all our races are up and running.
Per registration, that's right. So if you head on over to gottourunracing.com,
check out our new website, let us know what you think.
It's a big departure from our last one, so we're really excited about it.
(02:18):
And you can click on upcoming events. Hence, it'll take you over to Race Roster
and you can sign up for Lost Treasure, Rainbow Trail, and Island Lake Classic.
All right. We will see you there. Sure will. And who did you say is on our podcast
today? Oh, yeah. Remember? Rachel Drake. Oh, right.
Rachel is 32. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
(02:39):
She's a fairly new mom. She has her Ph.D. in medical sciences.
And her partner is ultra runner Tyler Green.
Rachel has run with the Bowerman Track Club in Portland and earned a marathon
personal best of 235.28 at the California International Marathon in Sacramento
this past December, which is well below Olympic trial standards.
(03:00):
Yeah, wow. And she started 2024 off with a bang with a win at the Hong Kong
33K, which is the first World Trail Majors Race of the Year.
And now with her win at Black Canyon, she's earned her golden ticket to the
big show Western States in June.
Well, we have lots to talk about. I think that's going to be her first 100 miler. Wow.
(03:22):
Well, let's find out. Without further ado, here is Rachel coming up.
Well, welcome to the podcast and big congrats on winning Black Canyon.
I'm not a very easy day with the mud conditions.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. that. But before we get into Black
(03:47):
Canoe, I also want to congratulate you on your Hong Kong win. Thank you.
And then you crushed that record by 40 minutes. What was that like?
That was really fun. The terrain over there is a lot different from what I'm
used to, but it was such an incredible experience,
not just the race, but being in Hong Kong and getting to experience the culture
(04:07):
and the warm people over there.
It was really incredible. incredible it must have been tough to get acclimatized
because that's a that's a pretty long flight especially coming from the west
coast and the temperature wouldn't be I know it's not super hot at that time
of year but did you find it tough to get acclimatized for race day.
(04:28):
Surprisingly with the time difference it wasn't so bad we kind of lucked out
on our flight because there was it was a pretty empty flight so we had a lot
of space to spread out and actually get some some pretty good sleep.
So that helped. And then, yeah, it was a lot warmer than what we're used to.
And I hadn't done any heat training before that race.
(04:49):
It took a little bit of time, but we were able to get out on the course and
experience both the conditions in terms of the temperature and the humidity,
but also just the difference in terrain.
So I felt pretty prepared going into race day, considering all of that.
That's great. What made you choose this race?
(05:10):
It was purely because my husband wanted to do the 100K and I said,
if I'm coming with you, I want to get in on the action.
So I emailed the race director and asked if I could get into the 33K and they kindly let me in.
That sounds familiar, eh Norm? Yeah, same here.
We have a little agreement that if he's picking a race internationally one year,
(05:35):
then I get to pick the next one.
Okay. So this is my year. So I, of course, picked one that isn't on everyone's
radar, but we're going to Slovenia in April. So I'm pretty excited about that.
Wow. Which race are you doing? it's called
ultra trail the vape the vapa valley i'm
not sure if i'm saying that right but it just
(05:56):
looked like a really beautiful part of the world and slovenia is
a relatively small country so it would be fun to we like to obviously attach
it to a vacation although we never do it in the right order we always do the
race end of the vacation which is not okay yeah i've told tyler i said I said,
you know, I want to go on a vacation sometime,
(06:18):
someplace cool where we're not doing races.
Because I don't think we've ever done that where we don't race.
No, but it's a fun way to see a country, certainly.
Yeah, absolutely. I think she signed us up too many glasses of wine.
I didn't know about it for a week later. Oh, really?
(06:38):
Wow. Well, speaking of international races, have you have you noticed a difference or can you pinpoint?
Yeah. Can you pinpoint a difference, you would say, between the organization
of a race overseas versus in North America?
Because we certainly have noticed differences, but I'm curious to hear from
your standpoint being an elite.
I think in terms of. Yeah, you you have a unique perspective as race directors,
(07:03):
so I'm sure you're you're noticing things that I might not notice.
The things that I tend to think about are what's at the aid station.
So for example, in Europe, it's oftentimes cheeses and cured meats.
And that's not something that I'm used to eating while running.
(07:24):
I don't think I've ever seen potato chips at a European trail race aid station. But.
Coca-Cola is something that tends to be unanimously provided.
Other things about race organization, I think most of the time courses are really
well marked and that's not a country-specific thing.
(07:45):
It's more of a race-specific thing.
There have been races in the United States put on by companies that I think
don't do as good of a job marking the courses. But I think from my perspective,
that's probably the most important thing that a race could do.
Yeah. Second to nothing else. And then in terms of maybe this isn't race organization
(08:10):
thing, but more of a cultural thing.
It's just some places the community seems a lot more involved in the races.
Places, people are out cheering with their kids.
That's something that I think is really cool and something more unique to Europe.
We would agree with that 100% because we were at UTMB last year and Norm was
(08:31):
mentioning how, you know, in the middle of the night, there would be these tiny
towns and there'd be the whole town. I love it.
Yeah, I love it so much. The kids get to stay up past their bedtime to cheer
on the runners and the kids seem excited about it too.
I think that's something north america can definitely work
on because oftentimes especially if there's any
(08:51):
kind of road section in a race the town
are really not for it and
there's other ways to get around that rather than being upset that they're coming
through your area and you can't go down this road today instead of that road
like we got to work on that for sure yeah i do remember I remember hoping for
(09:13):
homemade pie at the aid station, but I never saw any.
Oh, really? It was gone by the first thousand people at UTMB.
Oh, that'd be fun. Tyler did a race in Italy, and there was someone who was
offering the runners tea throughout the night.
And he said, oh, yeah, that sounds nice.
(09:34):
Maybe I'll have some tea. but then the but then the woman went back into her
into her home that was up on some mountain and she's like okay i just need to
boil the water and he said oh sorry i need to go.
That's funny all right let's get into black canyon a little bit of a delay at
the start with one inch of snow and when we heard that being canadian we thought
(09:59):
that's nothing It was a big deal.
What's the big deal? That's just a regular day for us.
But how did you handle the delay being two hours?
Yeah, I think the delay was more because the bus drivers, their contract,
I guess, wouldn't allow them to drive in those wintry conditions.
And I'm actually originally from Minnesota, so I'm used to the snow.
(10:22):
And I ran in college and did all my running outside pretty much all throughout the winter.
So I'm OK running in the snow.
When we heard that the race was pushed back, I actually hadn't been looking
at my phone because I was just trying to sort of get in the zone.
And my husband, Tyler, said, the race is pushed back two hours. And I said, really?
(10:46):
He said, yeah, I just got a text and then I checked it.
And we just went back to bed.
I had already done a couple of things. I had eaten about half of my breakfast
and braided my hair and put on my anti-chafe stuff.
So I just sort of put my pajamas
back on and fell right back asleep amazingly
(11:08):
wow which i think is really interesting because
normally when i wake up on race morning i'm already i'm
already kind of i can feel my adrenaline starting
yeah my nerves i can feel it starting to starting to
come on so i'm really really glad that i was
able to fall back asleep and then just do
(11:29):
it all over again in a couple hours it's funny
you mentioned in that because Becca said exactly the same thing and
and my comment was wow like to be that
relaxed to be able to go back to sleep I think
speaks to your performance on the day because as
you said normally you wouldn't be able to do that so that's an interesting note
yeah yeah you did run the 60k before so you do know the course and I was wondering
(11:55):
because of the hype did you take off like a 5k race or did you hold back laughs.
I think I held back. I felt really calm and relaxed just from the second the
gun went off, or I don't even know if it was a gun, but the second the race
started, I felt really relaxed and found myself in a big group of women.
(12:17):
I think Heather and then Anna McKenna, an Australian woman, they were up ahead
maybe 10 feet or so for a little while.
And it was one of those things where you think, yes, I could take a few quick
steps and just be right there, but it's way too early for that.
So I'm just going to stay as calm as I can and try to move well without exerting myself too much.
(12:42):
So did you get into your rhythm pretty quickly, would you say?
Yes and no. I think on the road before we got into the mud, it was easy to just let the miles slide by.
But then as As soon as we got on the mud, it was, I don't think anybody was
really finding rhythm in that just because it was pretty slow going and just
you had to stay really engaged because it was also hard to tell what was mud
(13:07):
and there were rocks kind of mixed in. I know a lot of people rolled their ankles.
So you just had to be pretty focused through that section.
Yeah, I can imagine. And I would think because it's sandy too,
that's the kind of mud that is really- Sticks to you.
Like it's gloopy yeah actually Tyler
ran the first 20 miles the day before the race
(13:29):
to to get some information on the conditions
and he he had mud sticking to the
bottoms of his shoes maybe an inch or so so I
was fully prepared for that but interestingly enough we
nobody really that I've talked to and I myself
didn't experience that so it didn't it
didn't stick as bad as I thought it would that's good
(13:52):
yeah so how are
you feeling at the 50 mile mark and what
position were you in by table mesa at the 50 mile mark jumping right to 50 miles
okay well that's when the race starts yeah well that's what i was thinking too
(14:12):
but i felt like the race started back back at black Black Canyon City when Becca caught up to me.
But if you want to talk about Table Mesa, I was feeling like kind of fire in
my belly, like ready to go.
I knew that Becca was super close and I wanted to make it a really quick stop.
(14:34):
So I got what I needed and grabbed my second pacer and just tried to keep pressing as much as I could.
That's true because Becca did mention that you You guys got into Table Mesa at the same time.
I think she was maybe 20 seconds back.
I don't think the elastic had quite snapped on the gap between the two of us,
(14:56):
but we were extremely close right there. Yeah.
So you knew that she was kind of gaining on you. And then do you have an extra gear at that point?
Well, actually, we had been running together prior to that for about 20 miles.
So when I mentioned Black Canyon City, she caught up to me there at mile 37.
(15:17):
And we ran together pretty much all the way into Table Mesa.
Maybe a mile out from Table Mesa, there was a creek crossing.
And on the opposite side of the creek
there was a really slippery bank that you
had to climb up to get out of the creek and i
had run that section a few days prior so i knew that mud was extremely slippery
(15:39):
so when i climbed out i grabbed on to this prickly little bush to help me get
out and becca i guess this was on the live stream i guess she slipped back into
that creek and so right right there,
I put, I don't know, maybe 10 seconds on her after running together for 20 miles.
And then my pacer caught up to me and I thought it was her. So I said, yeah, girl.
(16:05):
And he said, it's me. And he said, hey, she's a little bit back,
but if you want to try to make a move right here, I think it's a good idea.
So I tried to push a little bit harder just to distance myself a little bit more from her.
So by the time we got into Table Mesa, I was maybe 20 seconds ahead of her.
(16:29):
Rather than her catching up to me, it was me putting the tiniest little gap on her.
Did you prefer that, being chased, or would you rather do the chasing?
Typically, I like to do the chasing, I think.
But it's tough because if you're feeling good,
(16:50):
you want to capitalize on that you don't want to hold back
and I think at that point I was just doing
the best that I could in the moment so yeah it
was really exciting and I think it's good for the sport when we have
these really really close races it's much
more fun to watch than someone just blowing it out of the water and running
you know hours faster than the second place person right and to backtrack just
(17:13):
a minute here when did you take the lead because I know there was was some jostling
at the beginning there with Heather and as you said, Anna, but when did you actually take the leap?
Going back to Black Canyon City, I was in second place. I think Heather was,
I calculated her to be about six minutes ahead of me because there was a little out and back section.
(17:35):
So I glanced at my watch when I passed her and I remembered the cactus that we were near.
And then I glanced back at my watch when I ran past that. And I think she was
about six minutes ahead there. So Becca and I worked together on the climb out of Black Canyon City.
It's about a thousand foot climb.
We passed Heather maybe three quarters of the way up that climb.
(17:59):
And actually, Becca passed me on that climb maybe halfway up.
And then I just stuck right behind her. And then the two of us together,
we passed Heather. Heather.
And Heather, and then Becca was
in the lead all the way through Cottonwood Gulch aid station at mile 46.
And I tried to make that a really quick aid. I just grabbed some water, didn't stop very long.
(18:23):
And I actually passed Becca at that aid station.
So I guess technically I didn't lead the race until Cottonwood Gulch at mile 46.
But you can't really call it taking the lead because Becca was still right there.
I mean, she could have very easily been in the lead if she wanted to.
She could have just run right past me, I'm sure.
So we were still working together at that point. I would say we were sharing
(18:46):
the lead and then maybe more definitively taking the lead when I made the move
at that creek crossing about a mile out from Table Mesa. So maybe mile 50 or so. Okay.
All right. I loved what you said. I read a quote in Outside magazine where you
said just that you were hammering together for a really long time.
(19:08):
You're just in it together. And in those moments, you feel it really strongly.
It felt really collaborative.
I was running a lot harder than I wanted to, but it didn't feel antagonistic.
And Becca was forcing me to get the most out of myself. And you're grateful for that.
And I think that that's such a awesome thing to be hearing from someone.
You guys that are obviously everyone wants
(19:31):
to win the race that's in it for that right and you're
all going for the golden ticket but at the same time you
are encouraging each other lifting each other up and the best runner on the
day wins the race so i love hearing that spirit that you have and i think that
that's so awesome and i hope that it continues throughout the sport and more
(19:52):
people people feel that way because it's just so great to hear about that.
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(20:13):
As the story goes, the American outlaw, Jesse James, buried a barrel full of
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You'll earn your very own coin medal when you cross the finish line.
Registration is now open. For more info, go to gottaronracing.com.
(20:33):
Now back to Jodi and Norm.
Yeah, yeah, it was awesome. I think, I mean, there's no way that I run the time
that I ran, which was, I think, two minutes off course record.
If Becca hadn't been pushing me, I think it's really, really special to know that you gave your best.
And you always want your competitors to come into a race at their best and to
(20:55):
perform their very best because it forces you to do the same.
So yeah, I'm really grateful for Becca for all her amazing energy and for making
me run a lot harder than I wanted to.
And that's one thing at international races, you don't necessarily know who
your competitor is going to be, right?
Unless you've really done your homework.
(21:17):
That's true. But I think the sport is so international that I know a lot of
the international competitors.
A lot of them are now my friends. So that's a really fun thing for me about
trail running that, yeah, maybe at first I didn't know a lot of the people that
I was racing against, but now I think I have a better idea.
(21:38):
And though there's a language barrier, I think there's still encouragement and
some communication that goes on out there. So that's fun.
So what was going through your mind when you crossed the finish line and you're
handed that big, giant check?
I was really happy to be done.
(21:59):
I thought you were going to say you were handed that big, big,
giant baby because my dad handed my son off to me about 30 feet before the finish line.
But yeah, I was just really happy to be done and relieved and...
Yeah, I was thrilled to have gotten a golden ticket to Western States.
(22:20):
Now that Western States will be your first 100-miler, is that right?
Yeah. And what are your thoughts about that?
I'm excited. You know, I always said I think I need to have a baby before I run 100 miles.
And now I've done that. And I'm excited to see what the new uncharted territory is like. like.
(22:42):
What are you most looking forward to at Western States?
I've been to Western States, I think four times now.
My husband has run it four times and I've paced him in several of those.
And even before he got into Western States, we drove out and ran on the course.
And I think it's just, I have so many memories sprinkled throughout that area.
(23:07):
And this is the same as it was for or Black Canyons.
I'm just excited to have a spectacular day with really a lot of my friends who are running the race.
I'm excited to make those memories and also be reminded of past memories that
have been made on the course with my friends and family.
(23:27):
And both you and Tyler are racing the same day. So who's on baby duty again?
My parents and I think maybe my brother and his wife are going to come.
So yeah, Yeah. My parents have been very supportive of, of our racing and they've
come to a lot of, a lot of races with us,
including they came to Europe with us this summer and to the Canary Islands,
(23:50):
Tyler ran Trans Grand Canaria.
They, yeah, they're amazing. And
it's great. Cause it allows us to really focus on, focus on the racing.
Do they still live in Minnesota? They do.
Yeah. Yeah. So any baby time they can get, I'm sure they're grateful for you.
They they probably tell you to race every month.
Yeah. They actually watched Lewis in Minnesota for two weeks while we were in Hong Kong.
(24:15):
So yeah, they, they love the little guy.
Now you mentioned that you wanted to have a baby before you ran a hundred miler.
Was there anything after having a baby that was unexpected that maybe changed,
training or how you felt after long runs? I'm curious.
(24:35):
Yeah, it was really difficult coming back to running postpartum.
I thought I had done everything right. I found a world-class physical therapist
that works with Olympians who are trying to return to competitive running.
I thought that I was eating a lot.
I thought I was taking a more calculated approach and being conservative,
(24:59):
but I did end up getting a pretty serious injury.
I had a stress fracture in my sacrum, which these bony injuries are very common
postpartum because your bones get weaker with breastfeeding.
And I breastfed for a year.
After I had that injury, I continued to breastfeed, but in my return to running,
(25:21):
I kept my volume very low.
I don't think I ran more than, And I ran kind of between 40 and 50 miles a week
after that while I was still breastfeeding.
And I ran OCC, the 55 kilometer distance at UTMB with that kind of low volume training.
(25:42):
And then in September, I stopped breastfeeding and started training for the
California International Marathon, a road marathon. on.
And I knew that after stopping breastfeeding, it would take about six months
for my bone density to recover.
And I'm not yet at six months.
(26:05):
Six months will be in March next month. So even in my training for Black Canyons,
I wanted to keep my volume really low just to make sure that I didn't suffer
another stress fracture.
Sure for sure well that that's something that women
face with bone density as they approach peri
and menopause too which yeah i never
(26:26):
actually made the connection to until recently because i had a stress fracture
in my tibia in my mid to late 40s and it just dawned on me a couple weeks ago
oh i wonder if that's because it was peri and didn't know it was peri i i think i i was past Past Perry,
before I even knew I was in Perry, because you just the symptoms that you have,
(26:48):
you just write them off to so many different things because there's not one
conclusive thing that happens to you. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Interesting.
The hormone profiles of postpartum and menopause and perimenopause are very similar.
I had a friend who was in perimenopause that had something similar happen.
(27:08):
And we talked a ton on the phone as we were both injured, trying to kind of
troubleshoot and optimize.
And just another thing I want to say about postpartum running is,
and I guess being a mother who's also a competitive athlete,
is just that I think in media, we love to celebrate and talk about strong moms
(27:31):
and mom power, mom strength.
And that really, I think, does a disservice to the challenge that going through
childbirth and all the things that come with being a mom, it makes it look like so attainable.
And nobody is asking you to come on podcasts when you get a stress fracture six months postpartum.
(27:55):
Like we're celebrating this now, of course, but it makes me kind of sad because
when I was in that position, I was seeing all of these mothers winning races and doing really well.
And I just wanted to be that and get there so quickly. and we just don't,
we don't talk about how hard it is.
And I think it's really isolating when you're in that spot, when you're a mom
(28:18):
and you think, why can't I be, why can't I have mom strength?
What's wrong with me? I'm getting injured.
This is really hard. I'm tired. I'm hungry.
So just if you're a mom in that position and you're suffering,
just know that you're not alone and that it's normal to struggle.
We just don't talk about it because it's not as fun, I guess,
(28:39):
is talking about winning races.
Right. And to your point, the previous generation didn't talk about it at all.
They just they just pretended like, yeah, you have the mom struggles,
but I'm not supposed to complain.
So although we are now in a position where we're seeing that Instagram picture
of everything being perfect.
(29:01):
At the same instance, from my experience, my girlfriends and I,
we talk about menopause a lot, which is great.
We still have that struggle of here's the perfection and this is reality.
But at least we are having those conversations. And I think that's huge to helping
the next generation, too.
(29:22):
So I think you're right. We should talk about it as much as we possibly can.
And thank you, Norm, for sitting here during this conversation. Yeah.
Well, it's important for Norm and all the men listening to understand this too,
because I'm sure you have women in your lives, your sisters, partners, friends.
(29:43):
I understand that it's uncomfortable, but I tell Tyler this all the time.
It's really important that we talk about this because he's a coach and he coaches
women and he's interested and eager to understand these things that we go through. Right.
Well, this is the reason why we have this podcast. We're always learning.
We're always talking. Yeah. Yeah.
(30:07):
Well, back to Western States. Who would you look forward to running against
or competing against at Western States?
Because it's going to be such an incredible field of women, like it was last year.
Yeah, everyone. I can't pick a single one, but one that I'm particularly excited
to spend some time with, hopefully, is Esther T.
(30:27):
Logg. Yes, we had her on our podcast. Well, amazing. I'll have to listen to that.
And that's because I met her when we were in Hong Kong and just really love her.
And she's just an incredible person and now a good friend and not someone that
I will get to see very much because we live very far away.
(30:48):
I'm hoping that we get to share some miles together. Yes, when she did,
well, we had her on a week after Western States last year, and it was just an
incredible time for women.
And she was saying that the media had no choice but to look at the women because
it was completely woman-dominated and what the women did, especially what Courtney did.
(31:13):
But nevertheless, it was a woman's year. year. Yeah.
And she had such a tough time at UTMB being sick.
And I don't even know that she completed 10K. I think she stopped pretty quickly.
This year. This year. Well, last year. Yeah. Yeah. Last year.
Yeah. Or yeah, last year. Yeah. Yeah.
So we're excited for her too, because she seems like a really genuinely sweet person and a mom.
(31:38):
She really is. She's incredible. And she's an art history PhD as well. Yeah. Yeah.
That's a whole other podcast. Yeah, right.
Now, with the new World Trail Majors organization coming out,
there is a Canadian race in there, and I don't think you've done any Canadian races.
(32:01):
So how about maybe thinking about checking out one of our big events?
Yeah, that'd be great. I'm totally open to it.
Especially in BC. sea. I'm sure that that would seem like a second home to you
in terms of the trails and conditions.
So yeah. Any reason why you guys haven't raised in Canada yet?
I was thinking about doing Whistler Alpine Meadows a few years ago and it just
(32:26):
didn't quite work out with our schedules.
Yeah, there's no reason we haven't. We actually went to Squamish for our honeymoon.
Oh, wow. We were supposed to go to Bali and the night before we were going to
fly out, we said, we don't even like the beach. Let's do something else.
And we just drove up to, well, first we went to Eastern Oregon,
(32:48):
went camping there, and then we went to Squamish and ran around there.
So we love it. It's incredible.
The night before you decided against Bali? Yeah, we had our bags packed and everything.
And I think I said, so how excited are you about this?
(33:08):
He's like, I'm glad you said something because it just doesn't feel right.
And I was like, yeah, I don't even, what are we going to do there?
Like, where are the trails?
We don't like the beach.
Well, not that we don't like the beach, but we just don't like laying on the beach.
Right. Exactly. yeah that must have been
(33:29):
a quick repack then because the the clothing's not
the same no it's not oh man
well we haven't been to squamish but of course we we know from gary robbins
that it's the place to be but if you're if you want to check out something other
than bc quebec would be the place to go but very technical trails and they have
(33:50):
quebec mega trail which is now part of of the WTM.
But anyways, we always goad our American guests into saying, come on, guys.
You gotta come to Canada. We're your closest neighbor.
What's up? Yeah, that sounds great. I feel like I'm maybe also like 10% Canadian
just being from Minnesota.
(34:10):
You know, similar accent. That's right.
Oh, man. Well, this has been awesome, Rachel. Thank you so much for joining us.
We loved hearing about your Black Canyon experience and of course we'll be following
western states very closely,
but before we let you go we'd like to do a little rapid fire it's just some
(34:31):
fun questions to end off the pod so hope you don't mind all right let's get
into it would you rather be a professional writer painter or musician.
Painter. Painter. Oh, we don't get that one very often.
That wasn't Becca's answer. What was hers? No, no, no. You have to listen.
(34:52):
I'll have to listen. I'll have to listen. Okay.
What's your favorite ice cream flavor? Cotton candy.
Oh. That's a good one. Okay. All right. What's another sport you'd like to excel in? Kite surfing.
Oh, that would be fun. Are you superstitious? No. No? Not at all? No. Okay.
(35:14):
If you could travel back in time, what period would you go to and why?
I would like to, well, if I could be a little older, I'd like to go back to
like right before I was born.
Because my grandpa passed away 10 days before I was born, so I never got to meet him.
So I could go back to then or maybe even a little bit before then when my grandpa was younger.
(35:37):
That'd be nice. Yeah, that'd be amazing. what's
your favorite go-to meal after a
big effort big race like cheese
and carbs i would say maybe quesadilla or grilled cheese or at least that's
what was hitting the spot right after black canyons that are some sort of just
really calorically dense drink like a smoothie or yeah love it all right norm
(36:05):
like a superpower you'd like to have.
Super speak any language oh we've never had that that would be super that would
be amazing how many languages are there in the world i don't know but to just
be able to pull one off at the top of your head that would be amazing any language
even in any language any latin latin,
(36:28):
or indigenous languages have no writing i think it'd just be cool to be able
to instantly communicate with anyone, anywhere.
I love that. That is my favorite answer. You blew us away on that one.
Thank you, Rachel. We really appreciate your time today.
Thank you so much. This was really fun. All the best for your training for Western.
(36:50):
We'll be watching. Thanks.
All right. Take care. Bye. Bye.
And that was Rachel Drake, fresh off her win at Black Canyon.
Yes, indeed. Golden ticket winner to Western States to the big show.
I think I've said this before, but I'd love to know the percentage of elites
that go to Western with a golden ticket that have never run a hundred miles.
(37:16):
I think it's becoming more common because...
Yeah. A hundred miles is a, is a, put a lot of stress in the body.
So do a hundred Ks, further the career. Good point. Interesting.
That's what I'm telling everyone that I know is that don't do a hundred miles
after a hundred miles like I did.
Do a hundred Ks, a hundred Ks. Get your tickets, then do a hundred miles. Yeah.
(37:38):
You're right. You're right. Yeah. Anyway, I also love the fact that her and
Becca stuck together and had some sort of game plan. I don't think it was spoke
of, but hey, we're here together. Let's climb this hill together.
Right. Let's become one and two or stick together. See what happens.
See what happens. See what happens. Yeah. You push me, I push you. Mm-hmm.
(38:01):
Fantastic. Rather than, like she said, leading the race outright and not having that push. Yeah.
It's less interesting for sure when that happens, but. Well,
it was great to see that unfold.
Definitely. And that's definitely what's going to happen at Western States. it's
the west for sure the woman in kind of a field was happening which
will happen at western but they're all going to be pushing each
(38:22):
other which is what the sport is all about you got it i also like her comments
on the struggles that she had postpartum and the fact that she wants to talk
about it and let other women know that it was a struggle it continues to be
but the more we we talk about it,
the better it is for people to deal with it.
(38:45):
And life is not Instagram perfect. That's true. That's true.
Anyways, we'll be excitedly watching this power couple, Tyler Green and Rachel
Drake at Western States, along with all the other people that will be there.
Definitely won't be leaving the house that weekend. And who are we chatting
with tomorrow? Tomorrow, we've got the third place female, Lauren Perez.
(39:06):
Wow. These people are moving along. Well, Well, we like to talk to people that
haven't necessarily been on our radar.
Obviously, Rachel has been because we're familiar with her. But Becca and Lauren, not as of yet.
So it's exciting to see these new runners on the scene for us and to follow them.
(39:28):
Because inevitably, once they hit Western, they're a household name.
And if you like this episode, hey, please leave us a rating and review you wherever
you listen to our podcast.
Thank you. Until next time. Cheers.
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